The Camel Fair

The streets of Pushkar
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We took a train from Delhi to Ajmer on Friday - it's about 6 and a half hours. The train was nice, setup a lot like an airplane and included a couple of tea services, a newspaper and breakfast. Got my first look at the Indian landscape. We're currently in the state of Rajasthan, which is primarily desert or semi-arid. Very interesting to see the villages and farms (possible through irrigation) along the way. From Ajmer, we had to catch a government bus to Pushkar (as opposed to a private bus). When we walked out of the train station, we were absolutely assaulted by rickshaw drivers, hotel touts, taxi drivers, beggars, and people trying to sell us useless trinkets. It was very overwhelming... I thought we were going to be crushed by the mob. Once we finally got away from them, we took an autorickshaw to the bus and managed to get past that mob and onto the bus. One thing about India, everywhere you go you're mobbed. Not sure I'll ever get used to that, but I'm finding ways to avoid some of it, so that's something. I've read that Rajasthan is the worst for that, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Some children dressed as Hindu Gods
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The trip on the bus was fun, we were with the locals - they were as interested in looking at me as I was at them. The route went up over a windy mountain road with a wild hairpin turn. Very pretty views of the countryside.

Once we arrived in Pushkar and got settled, we took a walk through town. Pushkar is a holy city, so there are a lot of temples and the lake is a holy place. People take ritual baths there, men strip down to their underwear, but the women bathe in their saris. Flowers are also thrown into the water as a gift to the gods. At night, people float small fires on little paper rafts... very pretty sight from the other side of the lake where you can take in the view of hundreds at once... like floating luminaries.

The stadium
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At the other end of town, as part of the fair was a big carnival set up with rides and the typical carnival games. We continued past that to the stadium where there were many camels all dressed up for the occasion. There was also a stage with some traditional music and dances of various styles . It was very nice.

The next day we decided to walk through a back road to get through town instead of the main tourist road, and went through the more residential area. It's amazing how many animals roam the streets here - cows are everywhere, but you also see goats, donkeys, pigs (which look like boars), goats, dogs, camels and elephants.  There's lots for them to eat, as people throw their household garbage on the side of the road - it's everywhere. Once in a while you see them burning a pile of it, but there doesn't seem to be a regular pickup. I'm guessing that's different in the big cities - I didn't notice it as much in Delhi. Anyway, I digress. So we walked through town (past the cows) and said hi to some of the neighborhood kids. When we got to the other side where the camel fair was, it was amazing... so many camels in one place.... I'd never really seen one up close before. I pet one and was amazed to find that it was woolly like a sheep. I always thought they'd be coarse and wiry. The camels primarily are in the desert areas on the border between India and Pakistan, so they have markings that identify which country they're from. According to my friend, this helps the border patrol know which people belong where, by the markings on their camels.